Control Resonant: A New Chapter For PC Action Fans
Remedy has finally lifted the lid on Control 2, now officially titled Control Resonant. Revealed during the 2025 Game Awards, the sequel is aiming for a 2026 launch and looks set to take the series in a bolder, more action focused direction.
While the first Control was a stylish third person shooter set almost entirely inside the surreal Oldest House, Resonant shifts things into a larger, more open and combat heavy experience. If you play on PC and enjoy cinematic action games with strong atmosphere and progression systems, this is one to watch.
Story, Setting, And A New Protagonist
Control Resonant is both a direct sequel and a fresh jumping on point. Remedy is deliberately designing it so you do not need to have finished the first game to enjoy the new one, although returning players will recognize plenty of familiar names and ideas.
The big twist this time is the main character. Instead of Jesse Faden, the heroine of the original game, you play as her brother Dylan Faden. In the first Control, Dylan was more of an antagonist and a tragic figure. Resonant puts him front and center as the protagonist.
The story takes place years after the events of Control. The Federal Bureau of Control is in full lockdown and the world is facing a peak level supernatural crisis. Reality is breaking apart and powerful forces are reshaping the environment in dangerous ways.
Instead of being trapped inside a single shifting building, you are unleashed across multiple areas of Manhattan. But this is not the Manhattan you know. Huge chunks of the city are warped, disjointed, and twisted into impossible forms. Streets hang in mid air, structures rearrange themselves, and city blocks feel like they have been pulled through a nightmare dimension.
At the heart of Dylan’s abilities is an artifact called the Abberant. This strange object can transform into a variety of melee weapons, letting you switch your approach on the fly as you face different threats. Your mission is twofold: fight back the supernatural disaster and track down Jesse, Dylan’s missing sister.
Remedy describes Resonant as designed to be easy to pick up and hard to put down. So even if you skipped the first game, you will be able to dive straight into the action and learn about the world as you go.
Gameplay: From Shooter To Action RPG
The first Control mixed third person shooting with telekinetic powers and environmental destruction. From the reveal trailer, Control Resonant looks like a major shift toward fast, up close action. Think more action RPG and less cover shooter.
Dylan appears to prefer getting right into enemy faces, using the Abberant to slice, smash, and combo his way through surreal enemies. The combat shown so far looks aggressive and stylish, with a focus on melee hits, mobility, and power driven abilities rather than sitting back and firing from a distance.
Remedy has confirmed that Resonant will offer deep progression systems. As you play, you will unlock ways to fine tune Dylan’s abilities and combat style so the game can better match how you like to play.
According to early details, you will be able to specialize in:
- Raw melee power for players who like to get in close and hit hard.
- Ability driven agility if you prefer speed, dodges, and mobility focused skills.
- Environmental manipulation that lets you twist the battlefield itself to your advantage.
- A hybrid approach that mixes elements of all three for a flexible playstyle.
Expect a bigger scale overall compared to the original Control. Remedy’s creative director Mikael Kasurinen has said that they are pushing combat, exploration, and storytelling beyond anything they have done before. With a whole warped Manhattan to explore instead of a single office complex, that claim lines up with what we have seen so far.
The world design looks built for variety. Each part of Manhattan will bring its own architectural style, enemy encounters, and reality breaking moments. That gives Remedy plenty of room to play with verticality, weird geometry, and set pieces that show off both the engine and your abilities on modern gaming PCs.
Release Window And What PC Players Can Expect
Control Resonant does not have a specific day and month locked in yet, but the current target is a 2026 launch. That gives Remedy time to polish both the large scale level design and the new combat systems.
For PC players, there are a few reasons this sequel is especially interesting:
- The original Control was a showcase for ray tracing and modern GPU features, so Resonant will likely continue that tradition with demanding but visually impressive graphics options.
- The shift to an action RPG framework and deep progression means more build variety and replayability, something PC players often appreciate.
- A larger, warped city environment should give higher end rigs plenty to chew on with complex physics, effects, and streaming environments.
We have only seen one trailer so far, so there are still many questions about exact system requirements, PC specific features, and how performance scaling will work across different hardware tiers. Given Remedy’s history and their partnership highlights on platforms like Xbox, it is safe to expect a modern engine that aims to exploit the latest GPUs and CPUs while offering options for mid range builds.
For now, Control Resonant is shaping up as an ambitious evolution of the Control universe. A new protagonist, a bigger and stranger city, and a strong focus on melee action and character builds all point toward a sequel that wants to stand on its own while still respecting what made the first game special.
If you are into cinematic PC action games and you enjoy tweaking graphics settings and builds for the best experience, keep Resonant firmly on your radar for 2026.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/control-resonant-guide/
